Classic gingerbread cookies recipe requires an unusual ingredient: molasses. If you don’t have molasses on hand and don’t feel like going to a grocery store looking for it, don’t worry – you can still make yummy gingerbread cookies without molasses!

This gingerbread cookies recipe is very easy, uses common ingredients and doesn’t require molasses. When these gingerbread cookies are baking, the whole house smells so delicious! What could smell better than freshly baked cookies with these yummy sweet spices of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg!

You can use different cookie cutter shapes to cut out flowers, stars and hearts, and gingerbread man shapes to make gingerbread men cookies 🙂 If you don’t have cookie cutters, you can still make these delicious gingerbread cookies – just cut them out using the rim of the glass to make circles. See – you don’t need molasses and don’t even need cookie cutters – anyone can make these easy gingerbread cookies that use common ingredients from the pantry!

Once these gingerbread cookies are baked, you can ice them with the icing of your choice. You can decorate the gingerbread men by putting the icing into the squeeze bottle, so you have precise control where the icing goes. Use different color icing for festive colorful gingerbread men!

Another option is to have the gingerbread cookies without the icing. If I just want a great gingerbread cookie taste without the fancy presentation and hassle with the icing, what I do instead of the icing is sprinkle them with white sugar. White sugar on brown gingerbread cookies looks and tastes so good! My picture shows the gingerbread cookies without icing – I was just keeping it simple 🙂

Here’s the picture of these gingerbread cookies on a baking sheet, right out the oven:

Melanie, I just wanted t say that these cookies are delicious!! I wanted to make gingerbread cookies with my 2 year old granddaughter, but don’t care for molasses. When I saw this recipe I wasn’t sure because the picture didn’t look that appealing. (sorry). I used a 3 inch cookie cutter & I got over 4 dozen cookies. My granddaughter was first to try one & she said “ummm good, more?” LOL I will keep this recipe in my Christmas collection. One question, how do you store them?
Thank-you again for sharing this wonderful, molasses free gingerbread cookie recipe!!

I’m happy that you and your granddaughter liked the cookies! Yes, sometimes looks can be deceiving – I need to make these cookies again and take a better picture 🙂 You can store gingerbread cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Melanie, thank you for this wonderful recipe!
I just made these delicious cookies with my Mum and my five year old and we LOVE them!
The house smells just incredible! We used gingerbread man and Angels cookie cutters and they turned out great. Great idea with vanilla extract and honey, and ginger and cinnamon are noticeable and not overpowering. I will be making these again.

Melanie, these cookies are awesome!!! I’ve tried 4 different recipes until I tried yours and it’s by far the best!!! I’m baking some cookies for my friends right now to take them to our secret santa party. Thank you!

Awwww Andrea, it’s comments like yours that really make spending countless hours putting together this website all worth it! I’m so happy that you loved these gingerbread cookies! Have a great time at your Secret Santa party!

I was looking for awhile for an easy to bake gingerbread cookie. I’m from holland and knew in America this is one awesome traditionel cookie. I have no clue what mollasses are so great it is not included here. I like how they turned out by seeing it on the photos. I have one question. Can I store the cookie dough in the freezer? That way I can make this before hand.

Sara – yes, you can freeze cookie dough! Shape the dough into a disk (or 2 disks) for later rolling, tightly wrap the dough disk into a plastic wrap, then put it in the freezer-safe ziploc bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. You can thaw the dough in the refrigerator overnight or on the counter for 30 minutes (or until it’s soft enough to roll). Good luck, and please report back and let us know how freezing the dough turned out.

I have never tried baking gingerbread cookies, and after looking around for a few recipes, I stumbled across this one. I haven’t made them (yet) but I’ve noticed that your recipe doesn’t have any cloves. If I wanted to add them, how much would I need to add? Also, would it make a difference if I used baking powder instead of baking soda?

Wajiha – you can certainly add cloves, I’d add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp, depending on how much you like them 🙂 I haven’t tried making these cookies with baking powder instead of baking soda, but I’ve done it in other cookie recipes and it worked fine. Try 1 1/2 tsp of baking power instead of 1 tsp of baking soda, and please post back and let us know how it turned out! Good luck!

Hi Leyla,
I haven’t tried using almond flour instead of regular in these cookies, so unfortunately I don’t have an answer to that one. Unlike regular cooking where you can be creative, baking is an exact science and the substitutions can really throw off the final result! If you do try using almond flour with this recipe, could you please report back with how they turned out? I’m sure it would be a great help to other gluten-free readers!

Hi,
I mixed the flour and liquid mixture, I think I mixed for long time 🙁 now the mixture is not like a dough, kind of sticky. I kept it in the refrigerator is that ok? Or do I need to make a new one?
Please help me
Thanks in advance:)

Hi Lal,
Please don’t throw out the dough, you can absolutely fix it! There are 2 reasons why the dough could be too sticky: (1) Not chilled long enough (2) Not enough flour (could be due to measuring error). Usually refrigerating it for several hours will get rid of the stickiness. If it’s still too sticky to roll when it comes out of the refrigerator, add more flour to it (1 tbsp at a time) until you can roll it. Make sure you flour the rolling surface and the rolling pin too to prevent sticking. Good luck, and please let me know how it turned out!

Made this with my 6 year old daughter for Santa! They are delicious. We found they were a bit sticky when using cookie cutters but we may have not measured the flour properly. Adding some flour while we made them into shapes worked out. Thx for a great recipe.

I haven’t tried it, but I think it will work if you substitute half of the flour for whole wheat. Instead of 3 cups white flour, use 1 1/2 cups whole wheat and 1 1/2 cups white. If you try it, please post back and let us know how it turned out.

Reducing sugar is not recommended as it will change the consistency of the dough and texture of the cookie. If you are really set on reducing the sugar, please don’t reduce by more than 1/4 cup (make it 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup).

Thank you so much for this recipe!! I’m making cookies for a christmas event at school and I have no molasses so I was pretty stressed out and tried to look for molasses-free gingerbread cookies but most of them had bad reviews 🙁 these cookies look really nice and all the comments are good so I’m really excited to try them out!